ARTICLES ABOUT PEPPER SPRAY BY DATE - PAGE 5

Bethlehem police officers can now sharpen their skills on a $100,000 interactive video training system, essentially a simulator that will have scenarios built on actual police calls and backgrounds videotaped in the city. The simulator may look like a sophisticated arcade game, but it provides crucial training for officers to hone their instincts for real calls on the street, said Commissioner Randy Miller. State Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, helped secure an employment services grant to purchase the Professional Range Instruction Simulator, or PRISim.

Easton police are looking for two men who robbed a neighborhood market Thursday evening. One shot was fired but no one was injured, police said. An employee of Hall's Market at 39 N. Seventh St. used pepper spray to try to thwart the robbers, Easton police said. In the struggle, a gunshot was fired in the store but no one was injured. Police did not indicate who fired the shot. According to police, four people were in the store at the time of the robbery, just before 7 p.m. All were treated at the scene for exposure to pepper spray.

An 18-year-old student was shocked into submission by police breaking up a brawl Wednesday at Freedom High School, authorities said. Angelino Aponte, 1243 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem was taken to St. Luke Hospital-Fountain Hill as a precaution after an officer shot him with a stun gun, said Capt. George Boksan of the Bethlehem Township Police Department. "He was very combative," Boksan said. "He was subdued." Aponte was not hurt, Boksan said, and after he was evaluated at the hospital, he was charged with inciting a riot, simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment.

STROUD TOWNSHIP Two Monroe County men who allegedly pepper-sprayed and robbed two other men they had been playing pool with at the Pocono Pub were arrested on robbery charges Monday, Stroud Area Regional police said. Police said the two victims, a 23-year-old East Stroudsburg man and a 30-year-old Stroudsburg man, were pepper-sprayed and struck with a blunt object about 2:30 a.m. in the parking lot of the Pocono Pub in Stroud Township. Police did not release the names of the victims.

WILSON A Palmer Township man has been charged with assault after he argued with customers at a bar and returned with two metal pipes and a can of pepper spray and attacked two men, police said. Adam Scott Buss, 34, of 313 Berks St., is charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, harassment, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness. He was arraigned Tuesday before District Judge James Narlesky of Bethlehem and is in Northampton County Prison under $15,000 bail. Around 10:30 p.m. Monday, police were called to The Cactus Pub, 1500 Washington St., Wilson, for a dispute.

UPPER MACUNGIE Two Maryland men who tried to steal more than $500 worth of Prilosec from an Upper Macungie pharmacy Wednesday and shoved and threatened a manager with pepper spray were arrested moments after the fracas, police said. Michael P. Bergstrom, 36, and Richard J. Melton, 38, were charged with retail theft, simple assault and related crimes after officers from the Berks-Lehigh Regional police department found each hiding around businesses outside the drugstore, police said.

The U.S. government dropped its case Monday against Linda K. Krisko, the Bethlehem woman who had a loaded gun in a carry-on bag as she was about to board a Lehigh Valley International Airport flight on Aug. 18. Assistant U.S. District Attorney Mary Futcher declined to comment Wednesday on the governments motion, which stated that after further investigation, the government has determined that prosecution at this time is not in the...

BETHLEHEM A teenage male was arrested Friday and charged with trying to elude police by entering a Bethlehem home, Bethlehem police said. The 17-year-old from Easton was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and burglary. The teen had to be pepper-sprayed for police to get him into the patrol car, police said. Police give this account of what happened at 12:50 p.m. Friday: Police received a report that the teen was wanted on a juvenile probation warrant in Northampton County.

A Hilltown Township man is the latest regional resident entangled in an aviation security scare after he was charged with carrying a loaded revolver into Philadelphia International Airport, officials said. Christopher Littrell, 46, of Schwenk Mill Road, was scheduled for an afternoon flight to Cincinnati on Tuesday when a baggage screener found the gun in his bag, FBI spokeswoman Jerri Williams said. The FBI is not treating the incident as an act of terrorism and no flights were delayed, Williams said.

FREEMANSBURG A Freemansburg man was arrested Thursday evening for allegedly shouting at borough police officers and fighting with them. The officers sustained cuts and scrapes, and complained about a burning sensation from the pepper spray that they had to use on the suspect, according to police reports. Charles B. Vajada, 63, of 360 Roosevelt St., was charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Bethlehem police were called at 7:22 p.m. to assist borough police who had taken custody of Vajada outside his home.